/// Kabam Acquires Top LucasArts Game-Makers to Help Build Hardcore Social Games

Kabam, known for developing hardcore social games such as The Godfather and Kingdoms of Camelot, has acquired a company with deep roots in console game space. Fearless Studios, was co-founded by notable game-makers Haden Blackman and Cedrick Collomb two years ago. Blackman was the creator and senior executive producer of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and Collomb was formerly director of engineering at LucasArts. The two will immediately join Kabam along with all members the team from Marin, Calif. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Acquisitions in social gaming are common, especially as emerging companies try to gain scale. But it is not often that a social game company purchases a console game developer. In the case of Kabam, it does match with what it is trying to achieve. It is the goal of the Redwood City company to challenge the notion that all gamers on Facebook are housewives in their mid-40s . Instead, it wants to bring some of the high-end games found on consoles to social networks to attract more engaged players, who are willing to play and pay more. In a release, Kevin Chou, CEO of Kabam, said the team at Fearless has the right game design skills and technology set to help social games become higher fidelity. “Having the background and emerging technologies and proficiency in making the transition from 2D to 3D on consoles mesh perfectly with Kabam’s strategy,” he said. It is not clear if Fearless Studios ever released any games, but in a USA Today interview , the founders did say the team was interested in developing for the Xbox, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii, and for other devices, such as the iPhone. Fearless will be joining a much more established organization with roughly 400 employees. But already, there are some common threads between the two: Kabam’s COO Chris Carvalho also worked at Lucasfilm for a decade, and Blackman spent 13 years with LucasArts.

Leave a Reply

Sign up to join our community and learn about our next conference

About

Talk NYC/WW is your daily download of the tech, marketing and advertising news you need to know. It’s smartly curated to keep you up to speed on the innovators and innovations that are shaking up the digital world today.

GET TALK NYC VIA RSS

About Talk NYC

Talk NYC/WW is your daily download of the tech, marketing and advertising news you need to know. It’s smartly curated to keep you up to speed on the innovators and innovations that are shaking up the digital world today.